I received this projectile through a friend at work. Sorry, no picture. I need some help: The projectile is in fired condition. It is about 1.5" in diameter, 38.1 mm About 4.25 inches long. It seems to be armor piercing, solid. It had a tracer element in bottom. It has some sort of indentation band near the tip. It weighs about 2 pounds or so. Thank you for any help.
I would need exact dimensions along with such information as the driving band, any markings, etc. A picture is probably going to be necessary.
That was my thought also. I consulted a few online ordnance databases, but without a picture I got nowhere. Perhaps you don't own a digital camera, but maybe a friend could help? Or even a local imaging shop, to take a picture for a few bucks? P.S. As I understand it, the measure of a weapon's caliber is the distance between the lands in the barrel. The actual projectile would probably include a driving band, that is squeezed into the grooves of the barrel. So, guessing from this, I wonder if this projectile is a 37mm caliber round, with driving bands squeezed out to a maximum of 38.1 mm by the firing weapon's rifling. Again, of course, a picture would be useful.
I found a pic of it on the net, but with no description: An Introduction to Collecting Artillery Shells Look at figure 13, left hand pic. On that pic, it would be the small one on the right. That looks exactly like the one I have, but mine is fired. What do you think it is? Thanks, Jason
That pic looks to be a 76mm APCR-T, which is indeed an armor-piercing round with tracer but obviously much bigger. Perhaps it's from a British 2lb gun (40mm bore, would weigh about 1.1kg with tracer compound) or from a 40mm Bofors?
My guess is that it would be a 37mm anti-tank round, possibly missing a ballistic cap? 37mm AT guns were common in many countries around the start of WWII. The page you linked states that "The ammunition pictured in the article was used by the United States unless otherwise noted", so I'd assume it's an American projectile. My best guess would be that it's a 37mm APC-T M51 Shot that has lost its ballistic cap due to being fired. This could be wrong, though, because the illustrated shot in the link above doesn't have a groove at the base like the one in your Figure 13.
